ACC ~ Acts 2 v1

THE SAME SPIRIT. LEO THE GREAT: To the Hebrew people, now freed from Egypt, the law was given on Mount Sinai fifty days after the immolation of the paschal lamb. Similarly, after the passion of Christ in which the true Lamb of God was killed, just fifty days after his resurrection, the Holy Spirit fell upon the apostles and the whole group of believers. Thus the earnest Christian may easily perceive that the beginnings of the Old Covenant were at the service of the beginnings of the gospel and that the same Spirit who instituted the first established the Second Covenant. SERMON 75.

THE FIFTIETH DAY. BEDE: It should be noted with respect to the historical sense that among the ancients the day of Pentecost (that is the fiftieth day, on which the law was given) was computed from [the time of] the killing of the [paschal] lamb. In our case, however, it is not from the Lord’s passion but from his resurrection, as the blessed Augustine explains it, that we are to calculate the fiftieth day, on which was sent the Holy Spirit, who, recalling the example of the old sign, most clearly consecrated the Lord’s day to himself by his coming. Indeed, by this specific time [of his coming] he also showed that the Passover was to be celebrated on the Lord’s day. For here too God appeared in a vision of fire, as he had also in the earlier case, as Exodus says, “For the whole of Mount Sinai was smoking because the Lord had descended upon it in fire.”COMMENTARY ON THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 2.1.

THE INGATHERING. CHRYSOSTOM: Do you see the type? What is this Pentecost? The time when the sickle was to be put to the harvest and the fruits to be gathered. Look at the reality now, how the time has come to ply the sickle of the Word. The Spirit, keen-edged, came down in place of the sickle. For hear the words of Christ, “Lift up your eyes and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting.” And again, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.” He himself, taking [our nature] as the first fruits, lifted it up high and he was himself the first to ply the sickle. For this reason he calls [the Word] also the Seed. HOMILIES ON THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 4.

THE MYSTERY OF THE FIFTY DAYS. AUGUSTINE: Fifty days are reckoned from the celebration of the Passover (which, as Moses ordered, was accomplished by slaying the lamb, a type to signify the future passion of the Lord) to the day on which Moses received the law on tablets written by the finger of God. Likewise, when fifty days had passed from the slaying and resurrection of him who was led as a lamb to the slaughter, the finger of God, that is, the Holy Spirit filled the believers gathered in one place. ON THE SPIRIT AND THE LETTER 16.28.

THE SCENT OF PARADISE. EPHREM THE SYRIAN:

When the blessed apostles

were gathered together

the place shook

and the scent of Paradise,

having recognized its home,

poured forth its perfumes,

delighting the heralds

by whom

the guests are instructed

and come to his banquet;

eagerly he awaits their arrival

for he is the Lover of mankind.

HYMNS ON PARADISE 11.14.

Acts